Students heading back to school in the Prairie Spirit School Division will likely notice some changes this year. Superintendent Keith Murray says they've had a busy summer, with many projects on the go. He says the highlights of the capital projects include their new bus garage, as well as improvements to the way staff communicate with bus drivers.

"Our new bus garage, we had our grand opening at the end of June in Somerset. In July we closed the garages in Holland and Manitou, and all of the inventory and all of our staff moved over to the Somerset site. After that was done, we put new bus radios in all of our buses. We've also put bay stations in all of our community schools as well. Now our admin assistants in the schools can communicate directly with the bus drivers."

A roof replacement at Thomas Greenway School, and major renovations at Manitou Elementary School's library also took place.

However, it's not just their facilities that have changed over the summer. Murray notes they've hired a significant number of staff for the coming year, including some new principals.

"Between staff and those in admin positions, we're looking at close to 20 new teachers joining us this fall. We'll be having orientation Wednesday afternoon for all the new staff and we're looking forward to meeting them all to put names to faces. We've also installed new principals at Glenboro, Ste. Marie School in Bruxelles, and Prairie Mountain Elementary School here in Swan Lake."

When it comes to programming, they'll see the continuation of their reading apprenticeship program, which aims to improve subject literacy for middle and high school students. Murray says they'll also have a new pilot program kicking off at two of their schools.

"We have a drafting design pilot starting at Pilot Mound School, as well as Shamrock School which is one of our colony schools. It's our first year offering computer assisted design and we're also incorporating 3-D printers and scanners into that program."

Another one of their new programs is also already proving to be quite popular with the students.

"The hockey academy at Pilot Mound is going to be a go. At our end we have 18 students confirmed so far, they may have more players joining them already. I've heard numbers as high as 25 for that. It's exciting to see that going."

The Division's expecting to see a slight decrease in enrolment, with out 20 fewer students signed up this year. However, staffing will be maintained